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From George Maponga in Masvingo
First Lady Amai Auxilia Mnangagwa has rallied the nation to supportwomen to venture into and optimise agricultural production saying theyhave potential to anchor rapid transformation of the sector in line with Vision 2030.
The First Lady was speaking in Masvingo City’s Rujeko suburb and Gona Primary School in Gutu North where she launched the Masvingo AGRIC4SHE chapter that will spearhead the empowerment of women across the province to optimise agricultural production.
Amai Mnangagwa, who was represented at the two launches by Zimbabwe Women Microfinance Bank chief executive officer Dr Mandas Marikanda highlighted the vast potential in women to be the bedrock of agricultural transformation in Zimbabwe which is key in speedily
catapulting the country into an upper middle income economy.
The AGRIC4SHE programme is being rolled out in all the country’s 10 provinces and was conceived after the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture,Fisheries, Water and Rural Development approached the First Lady’s Office to ensure maximum participation of women across the length and breath of the country since they constitute the bigger chunk of the population.
In her speech,read by Dr Marikanda in Masvingo City, Amai Mnangagwa noted that women cannot be left behind in the battle to transform the agricultural sector in line with Vision 2030.
”The recent census indicated that about 52 percent of the national population is women. It is in this regard that these women should be given enough support to also steer the agricultural sector towards(achieving)an upper middle income(society) by 2030. The importance and contribution of women in the whole value chain cannot be over-emphasised,”said Amai Mnangagwa.
The First Lady noted that many opportunities abound for women in both agricultural production and the agricultural value chain.
It is out of the need to exploit that lacuna that the Ministry of Lands came up with AGRIC4SHE, which is a desk tasked with looking into women agricultural production issues, said the First Lady.
”There is need to mainstream women in agricultural production resources access, skills training, processing and markets. This desk(AGRIC4SHE) ensures that women are supported as they are key players in all agricultural value chains. It is a fact that women will
drive agricultural transformation in Zimbabwe and play a pivotal role in the attainment of Vision 2030.”
She said indications from the national gender profile of agriculture in Zimbabwe showed that rural women contributed about 70 percent of household and family labour in rural communities.
”It is worth noting that women in agriculture play a significant role in enhancing food and nutrition security in agricultural production. Attainment of food security and nutrition goals under the Vision 2030 requires women farmers to be given more recognition.”
”Under the NDS 1 blueprint, agricultural and food systems transformation strategy, the Ministry(of Lands and Agriculture) will ensure crop and livestock production sufficiency through participation of women in the rural communities.”
According to the First Lady, the AGRIC4SHE will address issues such as production across all sectors of agriculture, post-harvest processing techniques, value addition and storage, increased social and rural and urban agricultural infrastructure, access to finance and financial literacy training.
The issue of access to agricultural inputs, technology and extension links to established agricultural markets, access to agricultural business development skills and information assistance in forming and
strengthening women’s agricultural groups, will also be tackled.
The AGRIC4SHE ambit encompasses the following programmes namely, pfumvudza4SHE, horticulture4SHE, Livestock4SHE, fisheries4SHE, mechanisation4SHE, irrigation4SHE and veterinary4SHE.
Amai Mnangagwa said the country can build on the Pfumvudza/Intwasa programme which has seen about 54 percent women beneficiaries by upscaling it to benefit more women and extend more capacity to them to be key hinges of household food security in the country.
The First Lady also revealed that with at least 50 percent women being involved in the country’s horticulture recovery and growth plan that is anchored on rural horticultural agro-industrialisation, it was also key to incorporate more women beneficiaries to revolutionarise the country’s horticultural sector.
Amai Mnangagwa noted that women stood out in the presidential wheat scheme with 40 percent of the players being rural women who produce wheat at irrigation schemes. In that line, the First Lady challenged them to come together and constitute groups or clubs to open enterprises such as bakeries to boost their incomes especially when Zimbabwe’s is in the throes of a bumper wheat harvest this year.
Women were also at the forefront of the rural poultry scheme which will see 3 million farmers benefiting while they were also the biggest beneficiaries of the presidential goat scheme.
She called on more women to continue to take the lead in the presidential fisheries scheme where free training in fish farming construction of communal fish ponds among other facilities is being rolled out countrywide.
”It is with this in mind that I would like to encourage women from all walks of life to focus on agricultural production and value chains, leaving no one one behind,”said the First Lady.
She invited bankers, processors, marketers and other players to support more women so that they anchor transformation of the country’s agricultural sector.
Amai ,Mnangagwa said it was imperative for women in the country to increase yields of traditional grains and cereals to boost household nutrition and incomes saying it was no longer fashionable to produce for the stomach only.
In his address Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs and Devolution Ezra Chadzamira paid tribute to Amai Mnangagwa for leading from the front to make sure that women are empowered to to be the arrowhead of the country’s agricultural revolution in line with Vision
2030.
Minister Chadzamira said women had a key role to play in national development saying their empowerment resonated with President Mnangagwa’s mantra of ”leaving no-one and no place behind.”
At Gona Primary School in Gutu, Amai Mnangagwa in a speech read on her behalf by Dr Marikanda implored women to form co-operatives and groups to value add some of their agricultural produce such as sunflowers so that they could earn more income from their farming ventures.
She expressed readiness to provide prizes for women who excel in various spheres under the AGRIC4SHE platform emphasising the need for more women players to venture into production of export crops such as cotton.
Ambuya Mary Mutikori of Gona village who received a Pfumvudza seed pack courtesy of the First Lady urged the mother of the nation to continue with her sterling work to engender economic emancipation of women.
”I am elated that at least I have something to plant now that the rains have started falling and I want to thank her(Amai Mnangagwa) for the good work that she has been doing. I will be able to feed myself and my grandchildren if we have good rains this year,”she said.
Mrs Maryline Chinaka of Gonville in Mpandawana said Zimbabwe was an agro-based economy and any intervention that seeks to boost the sector would bring immense benefits to the generality of the people.
”We can’t thank the First Lady enough for her gesture to help women to be self reliant through agriculture, women are the pillars of many homes and by empowering them through agriculture our mother(First Lady) is empowering the whole nation,”said Mrs Chinaka.
This was also said by Ms Clara Vuraiso of Rujeko suburb in Masvingo City who paid glowing tribute to the First Lady saying by pushing to boost food security and nutrition in both rural and urban households Amai Mnangagwa was building a firm foundation for Vision 2030.
”An upper middle income economy means food security at household level and also income security, what the First Lady is doing is to create a woman who is wholly empowered come 2030 and opening more opportunities for women in agriculture will no doubt economically set our nation on the course to prosperity,”said Ms Vuraiso.
Gutu North legislator Yeukai Simbanegavi thanked the First Lady for always coming up with interventions that seek to a better life for Zimbabweans particularly previously excluded groups such as women. She hailed the First Lady as someone who has the plight of the country’s citizens at heart saying by seeking to empower women the First Lady is building a solid and unshakeable foundation for the nation.
The same sentiments were echoes by Chief Chitsa of Gutu who said Zimbabwe was blessed to have a loving and caring mother describing the First Lady as a mother with a big heart and concerned with uplifting the living standards of the generality of Zimbabweans particularly those in rural areas.
Villagers received Pfumvudza/Intwasa seed packs from the First Lady with many hailing the mother of the nation for jump-starting their farming activities in the main agricultural season that is already underway.
Online Reporter